Crypto_News

UNKJD Soccer, a Web3 mobile soccer game, has announced a new partnership with global sports brand PUMA

This two-year collaboration aims to bring PUMA’s well-known brand into the game, offering players exclusive content like characters with unique abilities and skins inspired by PUMA soccer apparel, according to a UNKJD post

Players will also have the chance to participate in PUMA-sponsored tournaments, unlocking special rewards.

What is UNKJD Soccer?

UNKJD Soccer operates within the Web3 space, allowing players to trade in-game assets, such as leveled-up characters, through blockchain technology.

Using crypto elements like their own tokens, the game combines traditional soccer gameplay with decentralized ownership and digital rewards, offering a unique experience in the mobile gaming market.

UNKJD Soccer positions itself as a game combining the excitement of street soccer with fantasy elements. Players can recruit teams, compete in real-time matches, and earn rewards such as Gems, which can be converted into in-game currency.

This new collaboration with PUMA is expected to expand the game’s appeal to a wider audience, reaching beyond its existing player base.

PUMA, known for its long history in sports and fashion, has already worked with popular games like Fortnite and Rocket League In 2022, it announced entry into the metaverse with limited-edition collections and exclusive NFTs. The company launched Black Station, a metaverse site offering immersive experiences during New York Fashion Week.

This partnership further solidifies PUMA’s presence in the gaming world while giving UNKJD Soccer a chance to reach PUMA’s global audience

SynFutures, a decentralized derivatives protocol, has launched perpetual contracts that allow users to trade the 2024 U.S. election.

On Sept. 19, SynFutures posted on X that the two perpetual contracts on the upcoming U.S. election would allow users to bet on the winner’s rate. The USDC (USDC)-paired trading contracts focus on who will emerge victorious between Vice President Kamala Harris and former U.S. president Donald Trump.

What are perpetual futures contracts?

Perpetual futures contracts offer a crypto derivative instrument that traders use to speculate on the future price of an underlying digital asset. These contracts in the crypto space typically involve assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) or other coins.

Traders can speculate on any supported contract without owning the asset directly. Perpetual futures, unlike traditional futures contracts, do not have an expiration date.

SynFutures offers Trump and Harris perpetuals

As SynFutures announced on Sept. 19, the new TRUMP-USDC and HARRIS-USDC perpetual futures pairs allow traders to bet on the Polymarket rate regarding who will win the U.S. election in November 2024.

SynFutures’ perpetuals, which offer up to 10x leverage, track the Polymarket bet on the topic of the ‘Presidential Election Winner 2024’.

Currently, predictions indicate Harris has a 52% chance of winning, while Trump stands at 47%.

On SynFutures, the TRUMP-USDC pair trades at $0.47661, while the HARRIS-USDC pair is at $0.52453. The trades show a 24-hour change of 0.72% and 0.24%, respectively. The 24-hour trading volume for the two contracts is just over $366,000 for TRUMP and over $105,000 for HARRIS.

The two contracts have a settlement date of Nov. 4.

Sei, the layer-1 blockchain for high-frequency crypto trading, saw its native token’s price jump more than 23% in 24 hours as top altcoins rallied alongside Bitcoin.

On Sept. 19, Sei (SEI) rose from lows of $0.26 to hit $0.35 across major exchanges. SEI trading volume surged 159% to over $270 million, while the altcoin’s market cap reached $1.1 billion.

The gains saw SEI rank second among the biggest gainers in the top 100 coins by market cap, trailing only the rallying Popcat (POPCAT). The Solana meme coin was up 33% in 24 hours, with its price hovering near $0.92.

Both SEI and POPCAT were outpacing Bitcoin (BTC)’s 6% and Ethereum (ETH)’s 5.2% gains.

At the time of writing, other coins with double-digit gains of between 19% and 16% over the past 24 hours included Bittensor (TAO) and Sui (SUI).

Bitcoin surges to $63.2k

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday, Sept. 19. Earlier in the day, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, released a whitepaper on Bitcoin, outlining the cryptocurrency’s potential as a top portfolio asset.

Particularly, BlackRock sees BTC as an asset investors can use to diversify their portfolios or hedge against economic and geopolitical risks.

Bitcoin surged amid these developments, reaching intraday highs of $63,236 across major exchanges.

BlackRock’s entry into the crypto market via its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund coincided with the digital asset’s price jump to an all-time high above $73,000 in March. Several top analysts predict that BTC’s price will surge long term.

In its whitepaper, BlackRock highlights what it sees as the potential catalysts for future BTC price gains.

“Over the long term, Bitcoin’s adoption trajectory is likely to be driven by the degree to which concerns rise and fall over global monetary instability, geopolitical disharmony, U.S. fiscal sustainability and U.S. political stability.”

BlackRock.

Bitcoin mining stocks jumped by over 5% in the pre-market session as the crypto fear and greed index exited the fear zone.

Mara Holdings, the largest miner by market cap, rose by almost 6%, reaching a high of $16.7. Similarly, Riot Platforms’ stock jumped by 5.3%, while Argo Blockchain climbed by 5%. Other companies like CleanSpark, TeraWulf, and Core Scientific saw similar price action.

This recovery occurred as sentiment in the crypto industry improved. The closely watched crypto fear and greed index rose to the neutral point of 44, its highest level in nearly two weeks.

Most cryptocurrencies were in the green. Bitcoin (BTC) rose to over $63,000 while Ethereum (ETH) moved to $2,500. The two coins have risen by over 8% and 4%, respectively, in the last seven days.

This price action coincided with a strong stock market comeback. The Dow Jones futures jumped by 1.33%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index rose by 417 points. Government bond yields and the U.S. dollar index retreated.

Federal Reserve slashed interest rates

The Federal Reserve decided to slash interest rates by 50 bps on Wednesday as it seeks to engineer a soft landing. It also hinted that more cuts were on the horizon, especially if the U.S. continues to publish weak job numbers.

Other central banks have also started cutting rates. The European Central Bank has delivered two cuts, while the Bank of England hinted that it will resume cuts in the final two meetings of the year.

This marks a new phase for global central banks, which raised interest rates to multi-decade highs as inflation surged after the pandemic. Risky assets often perform well when the Fed and other central banks adopt a dovish tone, as funds tend to move away from low-yielding government bonds.

Still, it is too early to predict whether the gains in Bitcoin mining stocks will hold. Their price action will depend on how Bitcoin trades in the coming months.

Bitcoin price chart | Source: TradingViewOn the positive side, Bitcoin has avoided forming a death cross chart pattern. Instead, the price has moved above the 200-day and 50-day moving averages, a positive sign for the coin. It has also formed the three white soldiers candlestick pattern, which occurs when there are three consecutive bullish candles.

Bitcoin is also approaching the upper side of the descending channel. A break above that level would signal more upside, which could be bullish for mining stocks.

Commerzbank has teamed up with Deutsche Borse’s Crypto Finance to offer access to Bitcoin and Ethereum for corporate clients in Germany.

German lender Commerzbank has partnered with Crypto Finance, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, to offer corporate clients crypto trading and custody services, following its 2023 acquisition of a crypto custody license.

Commerzbank will oversee the custody of crypto assets, with Crypto Finance handling trading services, according to a Sept. 19 release. Gernot Kleckner, Commerzbank’s divisional board member for capital markets, described the offering as a secure opportunity for corporate clients to “seize the opportunities presented by Bitcoin and Ethereum for the first time.”

Commerzbank’s move comes amid rising demand for regulated crypto services in Germany, where Crypto Finance has expanded after securing four licenses from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. This is not the first collaboration between Commerzbank and Deutsche Börse in the digital asset space.

In 2021, the two worked together on a blockchain-based marketplace for tokenizing assets like real estate and art, in partnership with fintech firm 360X. At the time, Deutsche Börse CEO Theodor Weimer said the platform would help drive the “tokenization and digitization of assets that are not tradable today.”

The German banking sector has been increasingly active in the crypto space lately. DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest lender, is also preparing to launch a crypto trading pilot for retail customers later this year, allowing cooperative banks to offer direct digital asset trading to customers.

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. logged net outflows of $52.83 million on Sept. 18, ending four consecutive days of net inflows that drew in over $500 million.

According to data from SoSoValue, the outflows from these ETFs were led by ARK 21Shares’s ARKB which saw $43.4 million exit its fund. Grayscale’s GBTC and Bitwise’s BITB reported additional outflows of $8.1 million and $3.9 million respectively.

Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust was the only spot BTC fund to experience inflows on the day, bringing in $2.7 million. The remaining eight spot BTC ETFs including BlackRock’s IBIT remained neutral on the day

Total trading volume for these investment products saw a 28% drop from $2.27 billion on Sept. 17 to $ 1.63 billion seen yesterday. These funds have recorded a cumulative total net inflow of $17.44 billion since inception.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 3% in the past 24 hours to $62,109 at the time of writing, according to price data from crypto.news. This price movement follows the Federal Open Market Committee’s recent decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points. The easing of monetary policy typically boosts demand for risk assets, driving Bitcoin into a bullish trend.

Spot ETher ETFs record third consecutive day of outflows

Meanwhile, the nine U.S.-based spot Ethereum ETFs experienced net outflows of $9.74 million on Sept. 18, continuing their third-day outflow streak. The entire daily net outflows originated from Grayscale’s ETHE, with $14.7 million flowing out of its fund.

These outflows were partially offset by BlackRock’s ETHA, which logged inflows of $4.9 million on the day. The remaining seven ETH ETFs remained neutral.

The trading volume for these investment vehicles jumped to $221.88 million from the $176.26 million seen the previous day. The spot Ether ETFs have experienced a cumulative net outflow of $615.58 million to date. At the time of publication, Ethereum (ETH) saw a 4.8% rise, trading at $2,438.

Real-world assets platform MANTRA has announced that the mainnet launch for its MANTRA Chain will go live in October 2024.

MANTRA (OM), a layer-1 blockchain for RWA tokenization, said in a Sept. 18 announcement that the mainnet launch will offer key features such as enhanced network stability and institutional-grade access to on-chain finance and tokenized assets.

Bridging DeFi and TradFi

The mainnet will position the blockchain platform to achieve its goal of bringing traditional finance on-chain, MANTRA co-founder and chief utive officer John Patrick Mullin said.

MANTRA’s token and stablecoin on-ramps continue to attract more businesses and industry players to the RWA and asset tokenization space, helping to bridge the gap between decentralized finance and traditional finance, Mullin added.

MANTRA has struck some key partnerships

The MANTRA Chain’s mainnet launch will support this objective through new partnerships in the real-world assets eco. Mantra unveiled its incentivized testnet in April and struck a signficant partnership with MAG, a UAE-based real estate giant. The deal centers around the tokenization of $500 million in real estate.

In August, MANTRA disclosed a memorandum of understanding between the blockchain firm and an aviation finance company. The collaboration aims to unlock RWA investment opportunities in the aviation sector, a market currently valued at over $200 billion.

These developments have recently catalyzed the native token OM’s performance, with prices surging amid a spike in active wallets and staking.

Crypto’s stablecoin market could see a new entrant as Revolut reportedly eyes a fiat-pegged token of its own.

According to reports, the London-based firm has already begun work on its stablecoin offering, though the product’s timeline or launch date remains unknown. It’s also unclear whether Revolut’s stablecoin would be pegged to the euro or the U.S. dollar.

Revolut, a crypto-friendly fintech bank, has supported digital asset trading since at least 2017. The platform, which launched a crypto exchange for British professional investors in May, also obtained a U.K. banking license in June as part of its crypto expansion roadmap.

Valued at $171 billion on Sept. 18, the stablecoin market seems to be crypto’s hottest sector after Bitcoin (BTC) and the Ethereum (ETH) eco. Stablecoin issuers often accumulated reserves filled with Treasury bills and bonds, earning interest and yield in the process. Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin company, pocketed profits of $5.2 billion in the year’s first half.

The promise of yield and looming stablecoin regulations in the U.S. have further galvanized interest. Firms like Ripple have announced stablecoin plans, and providers like BitGo and PayPal have introduced fiat-tied tokens.

The European Union implemented its landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, opening the doors for issuers like Circle (USDC) to offer stablecoins across the bloc.

In the U.S., lawmakers like Patrick McHenry and Maxine Waters have made progress toward establishing a comprehensive stablecoin framework. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan opined that rules for fiat-pegged cryptocurrencies could have a greater impact on markets than crypto spot exchange-traded products.

WisdomTree has introduced a new platform called WisdomTree Connect to give users access to tokenized real-world assets

The platform aims to make tokenized assets more accessible to businesses and institutional users, allowing them to integrate traditional financial products with DeFi s, according to a press release from WisdomTree.

Tokenization refers to the process of turning traditional assets, like money market funds, into digital tokens that can be used on blockchain networks.

The new platform enables users to buy and hold WisdomTree digital funds in their own digital wallets, which can either be self-hosted or managed by a third party. For businesses and financial institutions, the platform provides a way to streamline transactions that would normally require multiple steps, such as converting crypto into traditional fiat money to buy financial products

WisdomTree Connect will address this by allowing firms to purchase yield-generating products directly using blockchain technology, eliminating several steps.

For instance, businesses using stablecoins — crypto designed to maintain a stable value—will be able to buy products like the WisdomTree Government Money Market Digital Fund without needing to leave the blockchain eco.

In July, Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree, expressed confidence that cryptocurrency adoption would accelerate with increased regulatory clarity. He also predicted that crypto would become mainstream as an asset class amid trends such as tokenization.

WisdomTree Connect availability

WisdomTree Connect will initially be available through a web portal and API, according to the release, with plans to expand how users interact with the platform. The platform will support transactions in U.S. dollars and the USDC (USDC) stablecoin, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. This feature adds flexibility for users who need to convert between fiat currency and crypto.

Tokens on the platform will initially be minted on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, with additional blockchains to be supported later. WisdomTree’s new infrastructure is designed to offer businesses and institutions a secure, on-chain way to access traditional financial products, bridging the gap between decentralized and traditional finance.

In March, WisdomTree received approval from the NYDFS to operate as a limited liability trust company, allowing it to offer crypto services such as stablecoin issuance and reserves management

The firm also launched its WisdomTree Prime app and continues its efforts to advance tokenized asset management and a spot Bitcoin ETF after previous rejections by the SEC.

Blackrock, the largest asset manager in the world, has published a comprehensive report on Bitcoin

In a report, BlackRock utives Samara Cohen, Robert Mitchnick, and Russell Brownback noted that Bitcoin (BTC) was a unique asset for diversification purposes.

Bitcoin solves core money problems

This report is notable because of the roles of the authors at BlackRock. Cohen is the Chief Investment Officer of ETF and index investments, Mitchnick is the company’s head of assets, and Brownback heads global positioning for fixed income.

First, they noted that Bitcoin is a limited asset with a supply cap of 21 million coins, unlike other forms of money. For example, there is an unlimited supply of U.S. dollars since the Federal Reserve has the final say on how much to print. During its last quantitative easing program, the Fed boosted its balance sheet from less than $5 trillion to $8.9 trillion.

Second, BlackRock believes that Bitcoin makes it easier for people to move money across borders. While this is true, Bitcoin transactions tend to be more expensive than sending fiat currencies. As a result, stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) have emerged as the most popular digital currencies for cross-border payments.

Additionally, they noted that Bitcoin is a truly decentralized global monetary not controlled by a central authority.

BTC is uncorrelated with stocks and gold

According to BlackRock, Bitcoin is also a highly uncorrelated asset and has a long track record of strong performance. It has risen by over 807,000x since its inception. The coin often outperforms traditional assets like the S&P 500 and gold when global risks rise.

For example, its 60-day return during the U.S. and Iran tensions in January 2020 was 20%, while the S&P 500 dropped by 7% and gold rose by 6%. Bitcoin also rose by 21% after the Covid outbreak in March 2020, while the S&P 500 and gold increased by 2% and 3%, respectively.

Additionally, Blackrock believes that Bitccoin is a good asset as the US public debt rises. The latest data by the National Debt Clock shows that the country has over $35.2 trillion in debt and is now spending $1 trillion to service it. In an opinion piece, the Wall Street Journal warned that a national debt crisis was coming.

Bitcoin also outperformed traditional assets during other major events like the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the recent yen carry trade unwinding

BlackRock’s views on Bitcoin are important because of its role in the global economy. In its latest financial results, the company revealed that it had over $10.7 trillion in assets, representing 41% of the American gross domestic product. It is also the biggest player in the spot Bitcoin ETF industry, with over $21 billion in assets.

Bitcoin is stuck in a range

Bitcoin price chart | Source: TradingViewBlackRock’s statement came as Bitcoin continued consolidating around the $60,000 mark as traders awaited the Federal Reserve’s decision.

Bitcoin is consolidating at the 50-day and 200-day moving averages and has formed a series of lower lows and lower highs. Therefore, the short-term outlook for Bitcoin is neutral. A bullish breakout will be confirmed if it moves above the upper descending trendline, while further downside could occur if it drops below $52,000.